Leaving God out of 'IT'

Planned Parenthood.

I know a lot of people, and am aware that there are a lot more people out there, who read those two words and the only thing that comes to mind is abortion.

Planned Parenthood provides lots of very important services to the community that have nothing to do with abortion. They provide education and information on sexuality and reproductive health to all who might come seeking it. They fight for more than just one-sided and frankly dangerous abstinence-only health education in schools. They provide people like me with affordable reproductive health care that I would otherwise not be able to afford. However, this is all besides the point of what I'm trying to get across today, so we'll stay out of the whole Planned Parenthood good/evil debate.

The county fair is currently going on just down the street from where I live. I stopped there Tuesday to poke around and do all the normal fair stuff, including poking through the commerce tents. I had two planned stops to make while I was in the tents, one to sign the remembrance book for Lafayette's late Mayor Rhiele, and the other at Planned Parenthood.

I was raised with a sense of civic duty, and it bothers me to draw on the communities resources without giving back. I wanted to check in with PP to see if there was anything I could do to help out. While there I got engaged in an excellent conversation about the importance of information in this day and age. While I was speaking with the woman at the PP booth, another woman walked up behind me and began perusing the literature at the booth.

While the PP worker and I were talking, another woman came into the booth area and started grabbing as much of the literature as she could while the first woman started screaming at the worker and I about being baby killers. Her hysterical shrieking rose like a siren song above the voices in the crowd while her companion tried to steal or destroy as much literature as possible from the PP booth.

My only reaction to this is to wonder what the hell is wrong with these people. Sure, I'm pro-choice, and in theory, since abortion is legal, my side is winning. Even if it were the other way around, I would not commit acts of hate against pro-lifers. As much of a problem as I have with using acts of vandalism and violence to further one's cause, there is something else that disturbs me even more.

I'm sure if you read my headline you already know what my next point is going to be.

Using God's name to justify your acts.

What makes you think your cause is so holy that God will back you? God wants us to be examples unto all peoples - he wants us to go out and save the world. How is hatred and personal furtherance in any way a benefit to others? The answer is it's not.

I get this a lot at work too. Shady little people trying to use God to further their shady little deals. I don't treat the holy any different than I do the scum-ball tax evading assholes at work. In fact, if you try to use the name of God to grease my wheels in the workplace, I'm a lot more prone to squeak.

Be hateful if you want to, it's your perogative. Just do us all a favor - stop hiding behind God and be responsible for your own actions.